According to their website, the Shoes for Orphan Souls has given away 1.6 million pairs of shoes to orphan children here in the United States and throughout the world. That’s great but there are 143 million orphans in the world! The need is still great. You can either donate a new pair of shoes (or more if you so desire) to the program or donate cash to help with shipping expenses.

I learned about this program through my church.

FNBO Direct recognizes the challenges consumers face to save money — as costs for gas and food surge and credit card debt climbs to new highs. Our answer to help struggling consumers is the Pay Yourself First Challenge – and we think that the Challenge may be of interest to you and your readers.

Pay Yourself First is a national challenge to encourage people from across the country to save money. We’re inviting prospective challengers to create and post a one-minute video on YouTube about how they save — or don’t save. The first 500 entrants will receive a $10 gift card. The top 20 finalists will receive $500 in cash. And everyone who submits a video has a chance to win a portion of the $45,000 prize package, a free vacation and, more important, acquire money-saving tips they can carry with them long after the close of the challenge. FNBO Direct will judge the video submissions and select five finalists — maybe even some of your readers — who will move on to participate in the actual six-month Challenge. If selected, America will watch them try to save as much as possible by depositing their money into an FNBO Direct Online Savings Account.

Throughout the challenge, participants will get advice from the Internet’s most-read personal finance columnist, Liz Pulliam Weston. She’ll weigh in on the challengers’ progress and offer tips we all can use.

I’ll promote pretty much anything if it will help motivate people to start saving money.